Despite suffering a series of exits from its US investment banking division, Barclays has climbed up the US league table rankings along with Deutsche Bank, in a rare show of strength from European banks in the region.

Barclays bank rose to fifth for overall investment banking fees in the US during the first half of this year, up from sixth in the same period last year, while Deutsche Bank rose to eighth from ninth, according to data from Dealogic. Within the top 10 rankings, Credit Suisse held steady at seventh.

Gary Posternack, head of M&A for the Americas at Barclays, said the bank was "absolutely" squaring up to its US rivals.

Although US banks still held four of the top five spots for overall investment banking revenue in America, Barclays’ ascent into the top ranks is notable. The last time a European bank cracked the top five in a first half period was 2011 when Credit Suisse finished in fifth, according to Dealogic. The last time one made the top five in a full year was 2010, when the Swiss bank was in fifth.

Barclays has also been faced with a series of high profile departures from its US business. In early May Skip McGee, head of America and a high profile investment banker, departed a day before Ros Stephenson, the chairman of global banking unit.

Yet Barclays grabbed bigger piece of the M&A pie in the first half of this year. The UK bank rose to third with a nearly 7% market share of revenues in the first half compared to fifth with a 6.2% market share in the first half of last year.

The bank has also been replenishing its ranks. Last months it hired Gary Antenberg from Deutsche Bank as chairman of insurance in its financial institutions group, and in May it hired former Goldman Sachs Group banker Tom Vandever as head of Americas financial institutions M&A.

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Posternack said the bank had focused in recent years on building out a strong senior team. "The investment we’ve made in our banking business overall in the US over the past several years, and M&A in particular, is now bearing fruit."

He highlighted the TMT and healthcare sectors as two areas that he expects to be strong through the remainder of the year.

Barclays’ climb in the overall investment banking revenues rankings came as Citi moved from fourth to sixth. Wells Fargo slipped from eight to ninth.

Investment banking revenues in the US during the first half were flat – down 1% at $18.7 billion - compared to the same period a year earlier. Within that total, M&A advisory revenues jumped 20% to $4.6 billion, according to Dealogic.

Among the large announced deals Barclays is advising on is Valeant Pharmaceutical's high-profile bid for Allergan in the healthcare sector.

Deutsche Bank cracked the top 10 rankings for M&A advisory fees in the first half of the year in ninth place after not making the top 10 during the first half of 2013. It also inched up in DCM and ECM fee rankings, moving to eighth for DCM revenues this year from ninth in the first half of last year and to seventh from eighth in ECM revenues.

Notable deals for Deutsche Bank include its role as one of two active bookrunners on Apple's second quarter $12 billion bond offering.

For syndicated loan revenue, Deutsche Bank moved to fourth from sixth. Within that league table, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays held third, fourth and fifth, respectively after JP Morgan and Bank of America. A year earlier, US banks held three of the top five positions with JP Morgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo in the top three slots.